Again, I’m ashamed to admit, especially in the wake of the release of Time I, Wintersun are a band that passed
me by a bit. I’ve always been a bit sceptical of power metal; a lot of power
metal bands spend too much time trying to focus on huge solos, fast riffs and
ludicrously high-pitched vocals and as a result sound nothing more than cliché.
Thankfully, Wintersun have avoided taken the ‘power metal clichés’ cheese-block
from the fridge and grating it over their latest album.
It’s been eight long years since Wintersun released their almighty
self-titled debut album. With the obvious and brilliant used links with power
metal and melodic death metal, the album was excellent and shot the band to
fame amongst the metal community. Wintersun’s Wintersun can easily be heard in their latest album, released on
October the 19th last year. The
album is a conceptual piece focused around the “astonishing, overwhelming” and “staggering”
thing that time is. It’s a good job that these three words are synonymous with
this album.
The band really hasn’t held back. As soon as ‘When Time Fades Away’
begins, the albums creates this impressive, undoubtedly folky, but boundlessly
epic far-eastern feel, as traditional eastern folk instruments are used to create
this massive, epic atmosphere. Slowly but surely it builds and eventually ‘Sons
Of Winter And Stars’ kicks in, introducing the matured, controlled and
overwhelmingly melodic creature that Wintersun has become. Their melodic death
metal and power metal influences sit perfectly with the symphonic and folk accompaniments.
“Sit” is the wrong word, nothing about this album “sits”. The limitless larger-than-life
power metal energy that bounds alongside the flowing, intertwining melodies,
riffs and harmonies carry the work through progression after progression as
vocals switch from enormous, power-metal influenced cleans, thick with
brilliant vibrato, to melodic death
metal growls that excellently bring the vigour of the album up higher and
higher each time.
Despite the constant riffs, melodies and solos presented by the
tracks, nothing is lost. Every riff can be heard, every solo is clear, every
symphonic line is audible. It is presented and mixed masterfully, and absolutely
nothing is lost. Everything is so energetic, upbeat and dramatic that you would
think there couldn’t possibly be a climactic moment in any of the songs, but
Wintersun easily deliver massive choruses with folk-inspired, chanting vocal
choruses performed by the band whilst big
solos scream out over the thick texture set down by the orchestral parts.
Time I is amazing. Perhaps
sometimes it feels a little slow or maybe the odd transition could be a little
better, but these are menial, insignificant farts compared to what the album
does achieve. It really is “astonishing, overwhelming” and “staggering” on
every level, and never at any one point does it fail to deliver something
amazing.
Overall – 9/10
Best Song: Sons Of
Winter And Stars – 9.5/10
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